Week 5

Last weekend our mission president came to Gulu to organize a new branch...the Bardege Branch.  It had been a dependent branch of the Gulu Branch up until now.  Will take a while to get paperwork completed, MLS up and running. 

We left Sunday afternoon with the mission president and drove a couple of hours south to Chobe Safari Lodge where we received additional training Sun eve and Monday morning.  We were joined by another senior couple from Lira.  Chobe is located in Murchison Falls National Park.  We'll be visiting the falls with the first friends/family that come to visit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVaPr1zu3lE

Monday morning Pam and and I took a short walk down the main road into the reserve.  Immediately we saw an elephant.  I ventured a little closer than I should to take a picture but returned unscathed.  Also saw monkeys, Kob, wart hogs.  We were out looking for giraffe but didn't see any.  I also ventured down to the waters edge of the Nile where I stood within 20 yards or so of 5 hippos.  They were in the water cooling down.  I kept my eyes on them seeing if they were getting any closer each time they came up out of the water for fresh air.  Had they begun to move my way, I would have headed back to the lodge.  I've heard it said that more people are injured by hippos than by any other wild game.

Tues we spent the morning and afternoon driving around with the young elders showing us where members of the Gulu Branch live.  Locating people is so challenging for us as there are no road signs...zip, zero.  And every red dirt road looks the same...even the potholes look the same in each dirt road. So we can't be told to drive down Moore Street and take a left on Gatchell Drive then it is 3rd hut on the left.  One just has to drive to these homes over and over again to remember how to get there.  We wrote down directions as we turned from one street to the next...looking for landmarks, signs, barns, etc., to help us remember how to go on our own.

 Prospective missionaries over to cook us dinner last week.

 Yes, this is Pam getting ready to down a tablespoon of ants.

 Here are the ants uncooked.  They were cooked up in a brine water.  Very crisp and salty.  Not bad either.

 Bumped into this fellow at the market.  Notice the hat. Has been living here 10+ years.  From Mobile, AL.  His son works at a hotel here in Gulu and can get the big games on cable.  Hmmm...can't wait for football season to begin.

 Branch member...I love her cheeks.

 Murchison Falls National Park. (Chobe Lodge) I'm probably 50 yards away.

 Ugandan Kob as in corn on the cob.

 Mango tree at branch bldg.  The children get hungry during church and go out to pick fruit to eat, even tho it isn't ripe.

 This little fellow was in our apt parking lot.  Walks as fast as a snail.  It's a chameleon.  Of course, Pam had to pick it up and when she did it turned it's body around and tried to bite her.  She screemed and dropped the poor fellow onto the pavers.

 Not a good pic but this is broken glass cemented into the top of a security wall to discourage intruders.

Not unusual to see a sign that says, "not for sale".  Part of local corruption, folks will sell property they don't even own and sell it to multiple buyers.  Take the down payment or full price and then run.
So the sign tells potential buyers, this property is not for sale.